1 88a] MR. HUXLEY'S LECTURE. 241 



have been, as I judge from the reports in the Standard and 

 Daily News, and more especially from the accounts given me 

 by three of my children. I suppose that you have not 

 written out your lecture, so I fear there is no chance of its 

 being printed in extenso. You appear to have piled, as on 

 so many other occasions, honours high and thick on my old 

 head. But I well know how great a part you have played in 

 establishing and spreading the belief in the descent-theory, 

 ever since that grand review in the Times and the battle 

 royal at Oxford up to the present day. 



Ever, my dear Huxley, 



Yours sincerely and gratefully, 



Charles Darwin. 



P.S. — It was absurdly stupid in me, but I had read the 

 announcement of your Lecture, and thought that you meant 

 the maturity of the subject, until my wife one day remarked, 

 " it is almost twenty-one years since the ' Origin ' appeared," 

 and then for the first time the meaning of your words flashed 

 on me ! 



[In the above-mentioned lecture Mr. Huxley made a strong 

 point of the accumulation of palaeontological evidence which 

 the years between 1859 and 1880 have given us in favour of 

 Evolution. On this subject my father wrote (August 31, 

 1880):] 



My dear Professor Marsh, — I received some time ago 

 your very kind note of July 28th, and yesterday the mag- 

 nificent volume.* I have looked with renewed admiration at 

 the plates, and will soon read the text. Your work on these 

 old birds, and on the many fossil animals of North America, 

 has afforded the best support to the theory of Evolution, 



* Odontornithes. A monograph on the extinct Toothed Birds of N. 

 America. 1880. By 0. C. Marsh. 



VOL. III. R 



